The  Expansion 


of 


Middlebury  College 


By 


PRESIDENT  JOHN   M.  THOMAS 


MIDDLEBURY,     VERMONT 
MAY,    1910 


'<-■>•  ■■: 


The  Expansion  of  Middlebury  College. 


"The  main  thing  that  gives  me  confidence  as  to  Mid- 
dlebury is  the  justice  of  her  claim!' 

A,  Barton  Hepburn, 

Two  years  ago  I  assumed  the  administration  of 
Middlebury  College.  I  found  an  institution  unsur- 
passed among  American  colleges  for  the  honor  of  its 
record  in  proportion  to  the  means  at  its  command. 
The  roster  of  its  graduates  in  early  years  is  a  continuous 
narrative  of  distinguished  services  in  the  life  of  the 
American  people.  Mention  of  a  few  names,  like 
Edward  J.  Phelps,  Solomon  Foot,  Silas  Wright,  Henry 
Norman  Hudson,  and  John  G.  Saxe,  does  injustice  to 
that  record,  since  the  essential  fact  is  not  the  graduation 
of  a  few  men  of  note,  but  the  constant  stream  of  men 
of  worth  and  power.  In  the  early  decades  the  College 
was  almost  the  only  outlet  into  the  larger  world  for  the 
youth  of  a  rural  populace  signally  endowed  with  virile 
force  and  the  genius  of  expansion.  Traditions  of 
youth  in  homespun  who  became  leaders  in  the  nation 
linger  about  the  walls  of  Middlebury  and  create  an 
atmosphere  favorable  to  the  building  of  strong  char- 
acter and  the  growth  of  wholesome  ideals  of  plain 
living  and  the  achievement  of  success  by  merit. 


2  EXPANSION   OF   MIDDLEBURY   COLLEGE. 

There  was  no  debt  hanging  over  the 
Careful  institution,  and   we   are   not  now  in 

Administration,  debt.  Despite  the  severe  temptation 
in  the  recent  vast  expansion  of  higher 
education  to  install  new  departments  and  courses,  the 
College  had  consistently  refused  to  undertake  more  than 
could  be  paid  for  from  current  receipts.  I  can  not  be 
too  grateful  that  my  first  work  was  not  to  wipe  out  a 
burdensome  indebtedness  and  to  struggle  with  an  habit- 
ual deficit. 

The  College  has  never  impaired  its  capital,  and 
during  all  its  no  years  has  never  lost  a  dollar  of  trust 
funds  by  defalcation  or  by  unfortunate  investment. 
That  fact  alone  speaks  volumes  for  the  wise  conserv- 
atism of  its  management. 

Wisely,  no  effort  had  been  made  to  expand  into  a 
university.  But  one  course  was  given,  that  leading  to 
the  Bachelor  of  Arts  degree,  and  that  course  compared 
favorably  with  the  similar  course  in  larger  institutions. 
The  time-honored  departments  in  literature,  mathe- 
matics, and  the  fundamental  sciences  were  well  manned 
and  well  equipped  for  the  work  they  assumed  to  do. 
There  was  nothing  cheap  or  superficial  about  Middle- 
bury' s  work,  no  pretence  to  do  more  than  facilities 
allowed.  The  catalogue  was  an  honest  book,  and 
students  were  not  deceived  with  high-sounding  an- 
nouncements which  could  not  be  fulfilled. 

When  I  began  my  work  for  Middle- 

A  Solid  bury,  the  College  had  enjoyed  a  steady, 

Foundation.       healthful  growth  for  about  twenty  years. 

For  six  years  there  had  been  an  average 

net  gain  of  twenty  students  a  year,  showing  that  the 


MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE  BULLETIN.         3 

institution  was  working  its  way  into  increasing  favor 
without  spectacular  methods  or  lowering  of  its  standards. 
These  facts  indicate  the  solid  foundation  upon 
which  Middlebury  College  rests.  Appeal  for  its  further 
support  is  not  an  invitation  to  invest  in  an  experiment. 
To  give  money  to  a  college  ought  to  mean  to  place 
funds  where  they  will  work  forever — which  is  a  very 
long  while — and  in  such  a  long-time  investment  the 
inquirer  ought  to  demand  a  considerable  record  of  sane, 
wise  management.  Middlebury  College  can  meet  the 
scrutiny  of  the  most  prudent  as  to  the  careful  safe- 
guarding of  its  funds  and  the  utmost  possible  employ- 
ment of  them  in  beneficent  work. 

Other  considerations  which  forced 
Difficulties.  themselves  to  my  notice  when  I  took 
up  my  work  for  Middlebury  were  not 
so  heartening.  The  endowment  of  the  College  was  but 
$410,000,  yielding  but  $21,500  a  year.  This  is  a  very 
small  sum  for  the  administration  of  a  college. 
Williams  has  $1,500,000  endowment,  Amherst  $1,750,- 
000,  Dartmouth  $2,500,000,  Yale  $10,000,000,  Harvard 
$20,000,000.  These  figures  include  endowment  only, 
not  the  value  of  buildings,  libraries,  and  laboratories. 

The  five  buildings  of  Middlebury  are  valued  at 
$225,000,  less  than  the  cost  of  the  Thompson  Chapel  at 
Williams,  or  the  Carnegie  Lake  at  Princeton,  or  the 
Archbold  Gymnasium  at  Syracuse.  The  total  value  of 
the  buildings  at  Williams  is  $1,204,025;  Amherst,  $582,- 
900;    Dartmouth,  $1,400,000;  Harvard,  $11,000,000. 

Middlebury  had  published  no  statement  of  her 
resources,    and   the   general   impression   was   that   the 


4  EXPANSION   OF   MIDDLEBURY    COLLEGE. 

College  was  rich,  whereas  in  fact  few  colleges  in  New 
England  have  had  less  to  do  with. 

From  the  year  of  its  founding,  Middle- 
Makmg  a  bury  has  rendered  special  encouragement 

College  Pay.  to  young  men  who  have  a  hard  time  to 
get  a  start.  Early  benefactions  to  the 
institution  almost  invariably  took  the  form  of  scholar- 
ship foundations,  designed  to  yield  the  tuition  charges 
of  deserving  students.  The  dispensing  of  these  scholar- 
ships established  the  habit  among  its  constituency  of 
seeking  beneficiary  aid,  and  I  learned  that  very  few  of 
the  students  paid  any  large  proportion  of  their  tuition. 
The  more  prosperous  colleges  can  count  upon  a  dollar 
from  tuition  for  every  dollar  from  endowments,  and 
thus  our  small  endowment  was  proportionately  less 
effective  than  the  larger  sums  of  the  more  favored  insti- 
tutions. I  soon  perceived  that  it  was  a  hopeless  task  to 
think  of  providing  for  needed  expansion  by  the  income 
from  additional  invested  funds,  and  that  the  College 
itself  must  be  put  upon  a  better  paying  basis.  I  was  told 
that  it  was  impossible  :  that  the  students  were  too  poor  ; 
that  boys  came  to  Middlebury  because  it  was  cheap  and 
would  not  come  if  they  had  to  pay  tuition  ;  that  many 
scholarships  were  in  the  hands  of  private  trustees,  who 
had  purchased  the  right  to  them  by  small  gifts  in  early 
years,  and  who  would  come  forward  to  claim  them. 
But  notwithstanding  every  difficulty,  the  income  from 
tuition  was  increased  $4,000  the  first  year,  a  similar  gain 
has  been  made  the  present  year,  and  the  receipts  from 
tuition  are  now  eight  times  what  they  were  two  years 
ago.     There  is  every  reason  to  expect  an  advance  of 


MIDDLKBURY  COLLEGE  BULLETIN.         5 

$4, 000  a  year  from  this  source  for  at  least  two  years 
more.    Other  notable  advances  may  be  indicated  briefly  : 

A  gain  of  25  per  cent,  in  the  number 
Gains  of  the     of  studentS5  from    ^  to  ^  the  last 

as      wo  freshman  class  numbering  97,  the  largest 

number  both  of  men  and  of  women  ever 
received  at  one  time  in  the  history  of  the  College. 

The  establishment  of  a  Department  of  Pedagogy 
for  the  training  of  high  school  teachers  by  the  State, 
with  an  annual  appropriation  of  $6, 000,  making  the 
College  an  integral  part  of  the  State's  system  of  educa- 
tion, in  a  field  proper  to  its  genius  and  of  great  pros- 
pective value  both  to  the  institution  itself  and  to  the 
State  of  Vermont. 

The  addition  of  seven  instructors  to  the  Faculty, 
an  increase  of  50  per  cent.,  young  men  who  will  give 
the  best  years  of  their  lives  to  the  College  at  very  mod- 
erate cost. 

The  securing  of  the  Pearsons  Fund  of  $100,000,  of 
which  $70,000  will  be  used  for  a  beautiful  marble  dor- 
mitory for  women,  accommodating,  with  the  adjacent 
cottage,  nearly  100  girls. 

The  acquisition  of  35  acres  of  land  across  the  street 
from  the  present  grounds,  providing  an  adequate 
campus  for  a  college  for  women. 

The  beginning  of  a  successful  Summer  Session, 
with  an  attendance  of  87  the  first  year. 

I  have  been  working  thus  far  to  estab- 

A  Basis  for       Hsh    confidence,  and  I  think  I   have  a 

Confidence.         right  now  to  ask    for  it.      It    has  been 

proved  that  something  may  be  done  for 


6  EXPANSION    OK   MIDDLEBURY    COLLEGE. 

Middlebury  :  that  the  College  has  an  appeal  for  a 
trained  benefactor  like  Dr.  D.  K.  Pearsons,  whose 
survey  of  the  educational  situation  is  as  wide  as  the 
nation  and  who  investigates  before  he  gives  ;  that 
Middlebury  has  a  hold  upon  the  State  of  Vermont, 
which  entrusts  to  her  an  important  part  of  her  educa- 
tional work  ;  that  the  College  can  be  made  to  pay,  to 
the  extent  that  it  is  wise  to  make  such  an  institution 
pay .  On  the  basis  of  these  facts  I  ask  for  the  good  will 
of  men  of  judgment. 

Now  as  to  the  present  situation  of  our 
Inadequate  College.  Only  two  Professorships  are 
Endowment.  adequately  endowed,  the  Jermain  Pro- 
fessorship of  Political  Science  and  the 
Hepburn  Foundation  for  the  Dean  of  Women.  We 
have  other  Professorships,  but  the  funds  are  insufficient 
to  sustain  the  chairs,  except  one  whose  income  is  not 
yet  available.  An  increase  in  Professorships,  for  each 
of  which  $30,000  should  be  the  minimum  sum,  or  of 
general  endowment,  is  greatly  needed. 

Our  plant  is  large  enough  for  a  col- 
Insufficient  lege  of  200  students,  and  we  have  now 
Plant.  256  and    can  count  upon  not  less  than 

275  next  year.  Our  recitation  rooms 
are  too  few,  and  those  we  have  are  overcrowded.  It  is 
difficult  to  make  one's  way  through  the  halls  of  the  old 
Chapel,  our  only  general  recitation  building,  at  the 
times  of  the  change  of  classes.  The  Warner  Science 
Hall,  finished  only  eight  years  ago,  is  full  to  overflow- 
ing. We  should  have  twice  the  room  for  Chemistry  at 
once  and  another  instructor.     We  have  no  geological 


MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE  BULLETIN.         J 

laboratory  ;  with  the  large  quarrying  interests  of  Ver- 
mont, this  is  a  great  lack. 

No  dormitory  for  men  has  been 
What  $75,000  erected  since  1865.  Every  room  in 
Would  Do.  the  present    dormitories  is  occupied. 

What  we  are  to  do  with  next  year's 
class  I  simply  do  not  know,  nor  do  I  know  how  we 
can  provide  places  for  them  in  chapel.  We  now 
hold  chapel  in  two  sections  ;  some  of  the  young  men 
have  seats  on  the  platform,  and  the  young  women 
in  the  Science  Hall  require  chairs  in  the  aisles.  We 
need  a  new  dormitory  for  men ,  plainly  and  economically 
built,  but  with  adequate  toilets  and  baths,  and  such  a 
general  appearance  as  will  encourage  gentlemanliness. 
Seventy-five  thousand  dollars  would  equip  such  a  dor- 
mitory for  75  boys  ;  while  the  income  from  the  building 
would  sustain  a  Professor,  and  the  tuition  of  the  students 
whom  it  would  attract  would  pay  the  salaries  of  two 
more. 

No  college,  especially  in  a  northern 
A  Gymnasium.  region,  is  equipped  for  the  proper  care 
of  young  men  and  women  which  has 
not  a  gymnasium  and  a  physical  director.  Every  stu- 
dent should  have  a  physical  examination  immediately  on 
entering  college,  and  should  be  required,  for  two  years 
at  least,  to  take  systematic  exercise  under  trained  direc- 
tion. The  gain  to  our  students  from  such  an  equip- 
ment would  be  immeasurable.  It  would  multiply 
their  effectiveness  in  after  years  and  impart  a  more 
wholesome  tone  to  the  life  of  the  entire  College.  I 
want  to  install  a  physical  director  in  an  adequate  gym- 


8       EXPANSION  OF  MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE. 

nasium  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  It  will  not  be 
a  training  room  for  athletes,  but  a  place  of  physical 
discipline  for  every  student. 

I  have  written  a  dozen  college  presidents,  and  every 
one  of  them  tells  me  that  a  gymnasium  is  an  essential 
part  of  the  equipment  of  a  modern  college.  They  tes- 
tify also  that  $60,000  is  an  adequate  sum  for  such  a 
gymnasium,  for  a  college  of  our  size,  though  some  of 
them  add  that  they  would  prefer  to  wait  for  a  larger 
amount. 

Fifteen  years  ago  Hon.  John  G. 
An  Immediate  McCullough  gave  us  $1,000  for  a 
Opportunity,  gymnasium.     The  fund  has  been 

carefully  guarded,  and  now  amounts 
to  $1,477.  ^e  same  generous  donor  now  offers  to 
give  $25,000  provided  the  balance  of  a  gymnasium  fund 
of  $60,000  can  be  pledged  before  Commencement  of 
this  year.  Thus  far  the  Alumni  and  students  have 
brought  the  fund  to  $40,000,  including  Governor 
McCullough' s  offer.  I  appeal  to  the  friends  of  Middle- 
bury,  and  of  young  men  and  women,  for  the  balance. 

The  reasonable  expansion,  then,  of  Middlebury 
College  in  the  years  immediately  future  should  include 
the  following  : 

General  Endowment,  or  Professorships,  $75,000  00 
Dormitory  for  Men,  -  -  75>000  °° 

New  Scientific  L,ab oratories,        -  -         75>°°°  °° 

Recitation  Hall  for  Women,  -  60,000  00 

Central  Heating  and  Lighting  Plant,  30,000  00 

Gymnasium,        ...  -         60,000  00 

Chapel,  -  75>°°°  °° 

Total,     -  -  -     $450,000  00 


MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE  BULLETIN.         9 

Every  one  of  these  buildings  could  be  profitably  em- 
ployed as  soon  as  it  could  be  erected.  Maintenance 
of  the  present  rate  of  growth  will  make  them  absolutely 
necessary  in  a  very  short  time.  The  high  school  popu- 
lation of  Vermont  has  increased  80  per  cent,  in  twenty 
years,  and  in  the  surrounding  States  the  growth  is  not 
less  rapid.  The  demand  for  higher  education  is  increas- 
ing with  its  increasing  saneness  and  profitableness. 
Colleges  for  women  especially  are  overcrowded  ;  every 
woman's  college  in  New  England  is  refusing  deserving 
applicants  with  money  to  pay  the  high  cost,  and  most 
of  them  have  increased  their  charges  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  girls  of  frugal  homes. 

There  is  a  magnificent  opportunity  at 
Future  of  Middlebury   for   a  sensible,   plain,   effi- 

Mtddlebury.  cient  college,  where  a  modest  scale  of 
living  is  encouraged.  Such  an  institu- 
tion will  attract  the  superior  students,  of  eager  ambi- 
tion, scholarly  ideals,  and  sensible  ideas  of  living. 
The  one  hundred  years  of  Middlebury' s  past  furnish  a 
superb  background  for  such  a  college.  All  the  tradi- 
tions favor  ;  there  are  no  disheartening  obstacles  in  the 
nature  of  aristocratic  or  non-academic  sentiments.  All 
that  is  necessary  is  additional  funds,  modest  in  com- 
parison with  the  requirements  of  great  universities, 
which  will  yield  large  returns  in  educational  result  on 
the  capital  invested. 

The   other   day    I  visited  the  Bal- 

A  Plea  for  linger  High  School  in  Newark,  N.  J., 

Vermont  Boys,        and  was  shown  the  new  gymnasium, 

costing  about  the  sum  I  am  seeking 


IO      EXPANSION  OF  MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE. 

for  Middlebury.  It  is  a  beautiful  building,  plain  but 
serviceable.  I  looked  at  the  names  of  pupils  on  the 
school  register :  they  were  Jay  Bach,  James  Fausto, 
Johanna  Begieburg,  Pauline  Plemenik,  Edgar  Iyieb- 
scher,  Benjamin  Yawitz,  Abraham  Reich,  et  al.  I 
am  glad  that  these  children  of  the  stranger  have  such 
advantages ;  but  I  covet  for  our  Middlebury  students, 
60  per  cent,  of  whom  come  from  Vermont  and  over  90 
per  cent,  from  New  England,  whose  fathers  made  this 
nation  and  fought  to  save  it,  some  of  the  good  things 
freely  afforded  to  Benjamin  Yawitz  and  Abraham  Reich. 

The  function  of  a  college  is  the  service 
Practical  of  the  State.     Higher  education  is  not 

Education.  for  luxury,  but  for  the  training  of  lead- 
ers in  the  hard  work  and  exacting  tasks 
demanded  by  the  community  life.  We  must  send  out 
strong  men  and  noble-minded  women,  and  equip  them 
definitely  and  practically  for  the  particular  work  that 
needs  doing  in  the  present  day.  The  cost  per  student 
at  Middlebury  is  less  than  at  almost  any  other  American 
college  of  similar  grade.  We  are  doing  well  with  what 
we  have,  but  we  need  more  in  order  that  we  may  do 
more,  and  build  for  the  youth  of  the  best  stock  America 
affords  the  college  they  deserve.  They  are  worth 
larger  educational  opportunities  than  are  now  at  their 
disposal,  and  whatever  sacrifice  any  friend  will  devote 
to  their  uplift  will  bear  fruit  a  hundred  fold. 

It  does  not  take  a  Carnegie  or  a  Rocke- 

The  Moral.        feller  to  help  a  college.     Our  dormitory 

for  girls  will  be  built  with  the  money  of 

397  contributors ;  377  individuals  gave   $100   or  less. 


MIDDLEBURY  COLLEGE  BULLETIN.        II 

It  would  be  a  pleasure  to  confer  with  any  donor  who 
would  consider  the  personal  gift  of  an  entire  building, 
or  the  foundation  of  a  Professorship,  perhaps  with  the 
guarantee  of  the  College  of  an  annuity  during  the  life 
time  of  the  giver,  but  the  privilege  is  offered  a  large 
number  of  friends  to  help  in  any  amount  toward  the 
securing  of  the  needed  $20,000  for  the  completion  of 
the  Gymnasium  Fund. 

Checks  may  be  made  payable  to  John  A.  Fletcher, 
Treasurer,  or  cards  may  be  signed  pledging  payment 
before  June,  191 1. 

JOHN  M.  THOMAS. 

MiddlEBURY,  Vt.,  May  20,  1910. 


The  corporate  name  of  Middlebury  College  is  THE    PRESIDENT    AND 

FELLOWS   OF  MIDDLEBURY   COLLEGE. 

Bequests  should  be  made  in  this  name. 


. 


MIDDLEBURY    COLLEGE   BULLETIN 

Vol.  IV.  No.  5 


Published  by  the  College  September,  October,  December,  February,  May,  and 
July.  Entered  as  second  class  matter  at  the  postofftce,  Middlebury,  Vermont, 
under  act  of  Congress,  of  July  16,  1894. 


